The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

266 TOBIAS SMOLLETT
mansion, with suitable parks and plantations, rendered still more
striking by the nakedness of the surrounding country, which is
one of the wildest tracts in all Scotland.—This wildness, however,
is different from that of the Highlands; for here the mountains,
instead of heath, are covered with a fine green swarth, affording
pasture to innumerable flocks of sheep. But the fleeces of this
country, called Nithsdale, are not comparable to the wool of
Galloway, which is said to equal that of Salisbury plain. Having
passed the night at the castle of Drumlanrig, by invitation from the
duke himself, who is one of the best men that ever breathed, we
prosecuted our journey to Dumfries, a very elegant trading town
near the borders of England, where we found plenty of good
provision and excellent wine, at very reasonable prices, and the
accommodation as good in all respects as in any part of South-
Britain.—If I was confined to Scotland for life, I would choose
Dumfries as the place of my residence. Here we made enquiries
about captain Lismahago, of whom hearing no tidings, we pro-
ceeded, by the Solway Frith, to Carlisle. You must know, that the
Solway sands, upon which travellers pass at low water, are exceed-
ingly dangerous, because, as the tide makes, they become quick in
different places, and the flood rushes in so impetuously, that pas-
sengers are often overtaken by the sea, and perish.
In crossing these treacherous Syrtes with a guide, we perceived
a drowned horse, which Humphry Clinker, after due inspection,
declared to be the very identical beast which Mr. Lismahago rode
when he parted with us at Felton-bridge in Northumberland. This
information, which seemed to intimate that our friend the lieu-
tenant had shared the fate of his horse, affected us all, and above
all our aunt Tabitha, who shed salt tears, and obliged Clinker to
pull a few hairs out of the dead horse’s tail, to be worn in a ring as
a remembrance of his master: but her grief and ours was not of
long duration; for one of the first persons we saw in Carlisle, was
the lieutenant in propria persona, bargaining with a horse-dealer
for another steed, in the yard of the inn where we alighted.—Mrs.
Bramble was the first that perceived him, and screamed as if she
had seen a ghost; and, truly, at a proper time and place, he might
very well have passed for an inhabitant of another world; for he
was more meagre and grim than before.—We received him the
more cordially for having supposed he had been drowned; and
he was not deficient in expressions of satisfaction at this meeting.—